


Flashbacks

by Doctor_Discord



Series: The Ego Manor [31]
Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Dark Freaks, Flashbacks, No one knows what to do, Panic, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Wil has PTSD, World War I
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-09
Updated: 2019-01-09
Packaged: 2019-10-07 05:51:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17360234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Doctor_Discord/pseuds/Doctor_Discord
Summary: Wilford is a happy-go-lucky amnesiac psychopath with no idea of what happened pretty much prior to 1960.But William...William went to war, and it still affects him, even now.





	Flashbacks

**Author's Note:**

> Oof. This is not my FAVORITE thing in the world but I felt the need to establish this.

“Hey guys.” Bim plopped onto the couch, completely ignoring the way Silver scrambled out of his way, as he was too absorbed in his laptop screen.  He continued to talk, either not noticing the other egos were watching a movie (they were introducing Eric and Reynolds into the wonders of Netflix) or just not caring. “So I’m writing the questions for my next show, and I wanted like a history theme right? So I was wondering if you guys happened to know anything about World War I, because, frankly, the Internet is a little _too_ helpful and I can’t find shit in all the sites that pop up.”

Dark stiffened, and Wil shot him a confused glance. He cleared his throat, forcing himself to relax again. He’d really rather _not_ discuss this, but… “What do you want to know?”

Bim’s eyes lit up. “Right! You – never mind.” He coughed into his fist, withering a bit under Dark’s warning glare before perking back up. “Anyway, I wanted to know stuff like trench warfare, how that worked and stuff, or like the types of weapons they used, or maybe stuff like what the bloodiest battles were – oh! Maybe I could ask something about military rankings, like the differences between privates and generals and colonels –”

Wil went limp.

Dark _panicked_ , leaping to his feet and waving his hand at Bim as his aura flared, curling around Wil. “Shut up! Stop talking, just _stop_!”

“What’s wrong with him?!” Dr. Iplier took a step forward but Dark stopped him.

“I don’t know but just…nobody touch him.” Dark hesitantly reached out, shaking his shoulder lightly. “Wil…Wil, wake up.”

The second the words left his mouth, Wil’s eyes shot open, but something was wrong – his eyes were distant and clouded, as if he was having a lucid episode, and clearly unseeing of the world around him. He scrambled to his feet, shoving Dark away as he staggered into the center of the room, breathing harshly, as his eyes darted everywhere, wide and terrified and seeing something they couldn’t.

Dark took half a step forward. “…Wil?”

“ _Get away from me!_ ” Wil backed himself into a corner, hands fisted tightly in his hair with his arms covering his face, strangled gasps escaping him. He flinched out of nowhere, curling in on himself as tears began to make their way down his face.

Dark moved slowly closer, hands raised placatingly. “Wil, _calm down_. It’s me!” His aura wrapped around the other, creeping up his trembling body. Wil showed no signs of comprehending what he said. Dark grimaced. “Alright, I’m usually not the one to initiate this, but there’s no other way I can get _through_ to you…” His aura reached the other’s head, and suddenly their minds were connected and Dark could see and hear what Wil did.

            _All he could see was smoke, the acrid smell of gunpowder and mud and_ decay _burning his nostrils as he wandered through the fog. He could hear the sounds of gunfire, both in the distance and far too near, his ringing ears dulling the noise. The sounds of screaming men filled the background, and he covered his ears, shivering as the mud kicked up by his stumbling feet chilled him to the bone, surrounding him on all sides. He was_ so disoriented _, not quite sure of where or even who he was, all he could focus on was the_ ringing _in his ears and the chill and the smoke and the burning_ burning _scent –_

_“Colonel!”_

_He turned, eyes wide and watering with the acrid air. Colonel…that was who he was, right?_

            Dark pulled back with a cry, wrenching his mind away from Wil’s and breathing harshly. “ _Oh God_ …Silver, King, Google! Get the young ones and the Jims _out of here_! The rest of you, _get back_! I need to snap him out of it and it may not be pretty!”

He forced himself to calm despite his shaken nerves. He stepped forward, swallowing down his anxiety when he noticed that Wil was muttering one word over and over: “ _Colonel, colonel, colonel –_ ”

“Dark, what’s going on?!” His aura flared, silencing Bing’s frantic question.

“It’s a PTSD flashback! Now _shut up_!” Gently, he removed Wil’s hands from his hair, taking them in his own and giving him something to hold on to. “Wil, it’s okay! You’re okay, you’re _home_. You’re not there, you’re with me, in the living area. Wil, come on, Wil, it’s okay…”

Slowly, Wil lifted his head, tears still streaming down his face, but his eyes were clearer. “D…Dark?” He squeezed his eyes shut, shaking his head. “I don’t…I-I don’t know what’s _happening –_ ” A broken sob escaped him, and Dark pulled him into a tight hug, resting his chin atop his head.

“I know! I know, Wil, but it’s over now, you’re okay, I’m right here…” He rubbed his back soothingly, and after a few minutes, whether from pure exhaustion, the sheer stress of the situation, or both, Wil’s near painful grip on him slackened as he passed out, blissfully relieved from his trauma.

“Here, let’s bring him to my office.” Dr. Iplier rushed down the hall, and Dark simply stepped through the Void and was waiting for him at his office door, Wil still slumped in his arms. Dr. Iplier shoved the door open, and Dark laid Wil down in the bed against the far wall, taking a moment to brush the hair out his eyes before taking the seat next to the bed, interlacing his fingers with the other’s. Dr. Iplier sighed, flitting about randomly and clearly jittery. “Want to tell me what the _Hell_ that was all about?!”

Dark cringed. “Not really, but…I suppose I have no choice.” He looked up to face the doctor. “By now I can assume most of you have figured out that Wil and I are far older than we appear…we were the first, after all…” When Dr. Iplier nodded, Dark turned back to Wil, stroking his thumb across the back of his hand. “Wil, he…wasn’t always like this. He wasn’t always so… _broken_. Back in the day, he was a respected, happy man. But then he went to war.” He swallowed. “World War I. He was a colonel. And when he came back, he was…different. He was paranoid, fidgety. He…saw things that no man should see. We – no, _I_ have had to pull him out of more PTSD meltdowns than I can count, but…I haven’t seen one this bad, seen one at _all_ , since 1925. The year his mind broke. I think what made this so bad is he _still_ can’t remember a _thing_. He just went into a full-scale flashback without remembering he even went to war in the first place.”

Dr. Iplier’s eyes grew wider with ever word Dark spoke. When he finished, he swallowed harshly. “Well that’s…difficult to process. But it does explain what just happened.” He cleared his throat. “You should take him back to your room. He should wake somewhere familiar, he’s still pretty fragile.” Dark nodded, slipping his arms under Wil’s limp body and lifting him up. Before he could disappear through the Void, Dr. Iplier caught his shoulder. “Does he…need anything? Do you? I could probably find something that’ll help.”

Dark offered him a tight smile. “I think it would be best if we _all_ forgot about this. For all our sakes.” Dr. Iplier nodded, taking a step back and Dark vanished, reappearing in his room. With a tired sigh, he set Wil down on the bed before climbing in next to him, wrapping his body and his aura around the other man.

And when he finally drifted off to sleep, two pairs of arms – one red and one blue – were wrapped around Wil as well.

**Author's Note:**

> Weeeeeeeeell then. I, personally, don't like it. But this story brings the amount of egos who know vague bits of Dark and Wil's past up to four! The Jims know shit, Bim knows shit, and now Dr. Iplier knows shit. Anyway, MAN do I have a treat for you guys Sunday! It's fucking BEAUTIFUL! I love it! It's Host-centric, of course, and I'm just gonna leave it at that! See ya then!


End file.
